Neil Young is back: The the album's mediocre, but his Lincoln convertible is lean, mean and green

Published on Thursday 19 March 2009 10:34

IT'S A GALA YEAR FOR FANS OF cantankerous rock giant Neil Young, with a new album, plenty of gigs and the long salivated-over first of his Archives box sets on the way. Dig out the bunting and grow some grizzled mutton chops in celebration.

But be prepared, because there's no likelihood of the 63-year-old veteran rattling through the old favourites at Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight festival or London's Hyde Park. Instead he'll be using the platform for a higher purpose. Young has often given the impression of writing songs with a guitar in one hand and a newspaper in the other – Let's Roll was about the 9/11 attacks – while Living With War was an entire album about George Bush's conduct in Iraq. His latest enemies, however, are the motor companies. He's using rock 'n' roll, long the vehicle for euphoric songs about getting the engine running and heading out on the highway, to kill the car industry as we know it.

On the title track of Fork in the Road, released by Reprise on 6 April, he refers to firms such as General Motors and Chrysler: "There's a bail-out coming but it's not for you/It's for all those creeps hiding what they do." On Fuel Line he hollers about "The awesome power of electricity/Stored for you in a giant battery". Yes, it's a concept album about eco-driving. Form an orderly queue.

So is this just another rock star lecturing us on the environment while leaving the TV on standby in the private jet? Not at all. With its rough production and bellowed, often awkward lyrics, it's far from his best work musically and the least interesting part of a far bigger project.

Far more intriguing is Young's work with a spanner. He's part of a small team working on the Lincvolt, a 1959 Lincoln Continental MK IV convertible which used to do nine miles-per-gallon and is in the process of being converted into a 100mpg electric miracle. After a test ride through Wichita, he said: "It's fantastic, it's very eerie, very ghosty, this beautiful, white, huge car moving down the road and not making a sound. It looks like a yacht – it's a giant, and if a beast like this can run well without petrol, there's much hope for smaller cars."

Young owns the Lincoln, but the man with the brains is mechanic Johnathan Goodwin of SAE Energy in Wichita. Goodwin has made a name converting old cars into fuel-efficient green machines and has also refashioned a Jeep for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Young's new song Johnny Magic is a chugging tribute: "The Motorhead Messiah was tuning the system in."

"I am focused on a goal, and it's an audacious goal: to eliminate roadside refuelling," Young has said. In truth, we can do without the musical browbeating, but by putting his money where his petrol tank is, Young is doing something that will have a far greater impact than a few half-baked songs. As long as he squeezes the odd hit into his summer sets as well, Glastonbury's extensive green brigade will love the new, fuel-efficient Neil Young.